The Professional Use of

THERE IS TWO TYPES OF MARKETING BACKGROUND

Outbound Marketing •  Marketing that focuses on

finding customers. •  Often uses poorly targeted

and interruptive tactics like: •  cold-calling, •  print advertising, •  TV advertising, •  junk mail, •  spam, and •  trade shows

OLD MARKETING

Inbound Marketing •  Marketing that attracts highly qualified clients to their business like a

magnet. •  Instead of interrupting people with ads, businesses create videos

and blogs that people want to see & look forward to reading. •  Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that

prospects contact them looking for more information. •  Tactics include:

•  Blogs, ebooks, whitepapers, •  Webinars and seminars •  SEO •  Social Media

NEW MARKETING

Audiences everywhere are tough. They don’t have time to be bored or brow beaten by orthodox old-fashioned advertising. We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in. CRAIG  DAVIS  Chief  Crea0ve  Officer  Worldwide  J  Walter  Thompson  (World’s  4th  largest  ad  agency.)  

So how do we do it?

Content •  Write blogs, articles, ebooks,

and other searchable or subscribe-able content

Social Media •  Use Linkedin, Twitter,

Facebook, Blogs and Forums

Community •  Engage with your tribe

personally as an interactive part of their community (not an interruption)

Social Media: What works for business?

Why does LinkedIn work for Professional Services?

•  LinkedIn does less than Facebook and Twitter. •  It is less complex. •  Connections are controlled by the user •  You have very little layout control •  Fewer advertising interruptions •  Works the same way an address book does •  Little or no multimedia

SETTING IT UP USING LINKEDIN

Create a GOOD profile •  Upload a good professional photo •  Complete your profile properly, including your previous roles •  Use keywords liberally in your profile •  Link to websites using keywords •  Link to your blog via RSS feeds •  Update your profile as often as you have changes, but not too often or too falsely

Make  it  clear  what  you  offer.    Before  contac0ng  you,  a  LinkedIn  contact  is  likely  to  look  over  your  profile  to  

understand  how  you  can  help  them.          

Make sure it is compelling

Customise your URL

• If you use LinkedIn for business, make your profile public; • And customise your public profile’s URL to include your actual name.

Finish Your Profile You are much more likely to get found on LinkedIn if your

profile is 100% complete.

Build your Network

Search for people you know

Update your Status Regularly

Share links (using a URL shortener) to interesting articles, websites or video you have found that some individuals in your network might appreciate. Don't worry about whether all of your connections will find the information equally valuable. Also, try to use words that grab the readers and encourage them to click the link.

Pose a question that could lead to solving a problem you have, like: "Anyone know any good graphic designers?"

Conduct an informal poll of your network relating to a topic that is of interest to you, such as: "What tools are you using to deliver online content to your clients?“

Mention a person or a situation that might be helpful to some of your connections, like: "I just met with John Jeffrey from ABC Engineers and found out they are saving companies lots of $$ on building services design.“

Talk about an event you are attending or have attended to encourage involvement and/or questions

Use the "Like" feature when you see a helpful update from one of your connections. Doing this shares that update with your entire network. This is a great way to give the writer of the helpful update exposure to your network.

Important Netiquette Don’t Use LinkedIn Like FB and Twitter ...The

netiquette on LinkedIn is no more than a couple updates per day, whereas on Twitter you are almost expected to tweet twenty times per day.

Don’t mention personal things - like what you had for breakfast or that your cat, dog or child is sick today – this is inappropriate. It suggests to the business professionals in your network that you don't really respect their time.

Don’t flog - Continually talking about specific products and services make people think you are trying to flog something. This is not the purpose of social media, especially LinkedIn.

Avoid talking about topics that might be sensitive or inappropriate to some of your audience. [if your mother would dislike the comment – don’t make it]

Think twice before posting your physical whereabouts. If you must, do it after you return. Burglaries have occurred after location status tweets.

Don't waste your time reading updates from people who violate all of the above. By using the "Hide" function, you can stop an individual's status updates from showing up on your home page.

Don’t hold your breath for a lot of feedback but know people ARE watching you, getting to know more about you.

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH LINKEDIN GETTING DEEPER

Bring your Blog posts into LinkedIn •  You can bring your blog posts/

articles into LinkedIn with applications such as Blog Link or WordPress LinkedIn.

•  It’s a powerful way to engage your connections with material you’ve written. With these tools your posts will make it in front of their eyes when they receive their LinkedIn updates.

Company Pages •  LinkedIn offers “Company

Pages” for companies to showcase significantly more about their business than ever before.

•  With the new Products and Services tab, companies are able to feature products and services with descriptive overviews.

•  Videos can be embedded on the page, one per product or service, currently using Youtube.

LinkedIn Events •  With the LinkedIn Events

application, you can browse by event type, topic, and location.

•  You can add your own event for users to find, promote and attend.

•  When promoting your own events you can share with your contacts and as well as purchase paid advertising options targeting a specific audience on LinkedIn. This goes outside your network using CPC (cost-per-click), CPI (cost-per-impression) or text ads.

Follow Companies •  “Company follows” make it easy for you to keep your eye on

key events happening at companies you’re interested in.

•  “Company Follows” offer information regarding new jobs, new hires and promotions, what it’s like to work there via employee testimonials and how to contact a recruiter.

LinkedIn Groups •  On LinkedIn people put themselves into groups from which you

can connect with like minded or target audiences.

•  LinkedIn Groups are a great way to stay on top of topics of interest, and network with others in your field or target audience. You can see who was most influential in the group the past week and follow their activities on LinkedIn.

•  LinkedIn has restrictions about whom you can reach out to with a free account. The person has to have been a colleague, classmate, someone you’ve done business with or a friend. One of the best features of Groups is that you can reach over these rules, sending InMail that shares content, blogs and commentary to group members without having to upgrade to a premium account.

Post Your Blog to Groups

Questions and Answers •  One of the most utilised features on LinkedIn is ”Linkedin

Answers” or questions and answers. Questions can be used both for networking and marketing purposes.

•  Many people make answering questions a way to demonstrate their expertise. It also creates terrific SEO.

•  Create a new blog post in response to a question. •  Answer a question linking to relevant existing posts. •  Create a standard signature to append to your answers

that directs people to your site/s. •  Create a blog post asking a question that includes

pictures.

Recommendations •  “Recommendations” are a very important

part of your LinkedIn profile.

•  LinkedIn suggests that users with recommendations are three times as likely to get inquiries through LinkedIn searches.

•  To request a “Recommendation”, go to the Profile tab and select Recommendations. There you can choose what you want to be recommended for, decide who you will ask, create your customized message and send from within LinkedIn.

Link to your LinkedIn Profile •  Finally, once you are proud of your LinkedIn Profile, link to it. •  Be sure to include your LinkedIn URL:

•  in your email signature, •  on your website and blog, •  on the info tab on your Facebook profile and blog, •  as well as on your print marketing collateral and

business card.

Make a profile badge/link

On the profile tab you can create a profile badge for your website and blog that links to your profile online

Use LinkedIn on Mobile LinkedIn is available to you on Blackberry, Ipad and Iphone.

You can update your status swiftly, and check the activities of those in your network with ease.

Why bother with LinkedIn? •  It helps you reconnect with old contacts

•  It make it easy to keep track of people you know

•  It allows you to find someone when they change jobs

•  It allows you to reach out into groups to target opportune markets

•  It provides a place where people can verify your credibility

     Good  professional  services  marke0ng  generates  trust.      Trust  generates  revenue.      Web.    www.stretchmarke0ng.com.au  Blog.    www.marke0ngrack.com.au  LinkedIn.    www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccawilson